We're now a week and a half into earnings season, and 190 US companies have reported their third quarter numbers so far. By the end of earnings season, more than 2,000 companies will have reported, so we're still in the very early stages of this quarter's reporting period.

Below is a look at the historical earnings beat rate for US stocks by quarter since 2001. As shown, 60.5% of the companies that have reported so far this season have beaten consensus analyst EPS estimates. This is a mediocre reading compared to the average beat rate of 63% that we've seen since the bull market began in March 2009.

Top-line numbers have also been mediocre so far this season. As shown below, 50.9% of the companies that have reported have beaten revenue estimates, which is 9 percentage points below the average of 60% that we've seen since the bull market began.